Many lawyers now find that they have much newer, and better, computers, cell phones and software at home than they have at work. And some companies are looking to cut costs by requiring their employees to purchase their own equipment. Are these trends changing the way both lawyers and their firms handle technology in the workplace? In this episode, co-hosts Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell discuss the implications of this new kind of “digital divide” and the changes we are already starting to see.

We had been thinking about this topic for a while and a great podcast called “Work-life balance: yesterday’s news?” from the Financial Times Digital Business podcast motivated us to feature this topic.

Here’s the basic premise. We’ve reached a point where many lawyers are likely to have better technology at home than the technology supplied by their firms and available at their offices. Because of the many different choices we have for our home computers, smart phones and the like, we are also likely to have home technology that we prefer to work with more so than standard firm-issue, one-size-fits-all computers and cell phones.

The question we discuss is: what are the implications, if any, of this trend?

We talk about different approaches we’ve seen to allowing awider variety of tech choices, allowing use of home equipment, and even approaches where employees might be required to provide their own computers. Of course, we delve into the potential benefits and risks of approches that involve use of home computers in the work setting, including support, security and even e-discovery implications. We give you plenty to think about.

We also take on a few audience questions. We always welcome your questions. We tackle the question whether it’s time to think about leaving Facebook (we don’t think so) and get Tom’s thoughts an interesting social media tool called Gist.

We end the podcast with our Parting Shots – practical tips you can use right away. Tom recommends a book called Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard, by Chip Heath and Dan Heath. I recommend a simple free recording program called Freecorder 4 as a way to “tivo” a quick recording of the audio from a video that you can listen to later on your iPod.

Now Available! The Lawyer’s Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies: Smart Ways to Work Together, by Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell. Visit the companion website for the book at LawyersGuidetoCollaboration.com. Twitter: @collabtools

A number of sites, including Google Apps, Zoho, Microsoft, and others, offer a set of standard “office suite” programs – word processing, spreadsheets, presentations – in an online format. We’ve seen some solos and small firms experiment with using Google Apps. Now, we’ve learned that a 200+ employee law firm has launched a major Google Apps implementation. Are we at the beginning of a new trend? In this episode, co-hosts Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell discuss this new initiative, the potential impact for the legal profession and whether an online office suite might play a role in your future.

In many ways, this podcast is a gentle introduction to the idea of cloud computing, with a focus on an everyday application. We look at where we are in office suites, with Office 2010 about to debut, the Open Source OpenOffice, Google Apps, other online office suites, Mac Office apps,and even a new version of WordPerfect vying for our attention. We discuss the options and how to think about making choices for you. The podcast also will help you think about what Tom and I mean by “collaboration tools and technologies.”

In our “things we’ve been talking about” segment, Tom and I hit the highlights of the approachesd we are takling when we present about social media for lawyers.

We end the podcast with our Parting Shots – practical tips you can use right away. Tom talks about ways to use DropBox for file-sharing in ways you might not expect. I recommend Microsoft Word 2007′s Document Inspector feature to examine metadata and understand what hidden data is in your documents.

Now Available! The Lawyer’s Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies: Smart Ways to Work Together, by Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell. Visit the companion website for the book at LawyersGuidetoCollaboration.com. Twitter: @collabtools

I’m excited to get the chance to speak as part of what looks to be an excellent program. My friend, the well-known legal innovation expert, Matt Homann is the lunch speaker and that should be an excellent session.

I noticed that there is an early registration discount if you register by May 6.

Mike Downey and I will be offering a presentation called “Social Media: What’s New, What’s Dangerous and What’s Ethical?” and it qualifies for Missouri ethics credit.

If you know me, you won’t be surprised to learn that we won’t be offering the standard, plain vanilla, social media for lawyers session. In fact, I’m not sure that I’ve ever seen a program that has focused on the ethics issues for corporate counsel. You can expect a very practical approach designed to give you information you can use right away.

A word about the standard approach I’ve seen to this topic. It goes something like this:

A lawyer, often one with limited or even no experience in the actual use of social media, will launch into a litany of all the horrors associated with social media, usually focusing on events that happened a few years ago. That’s followed up with a brain-stormed list of even more terrible consequences that can come with the use of social media. That brings you to the first set of the presenter’s two conclusions, namely that there are “way more questions than answers” and that there might even be no definitive answers to any of the questions. Well, except for the one definitive answer that becomes the second, and most important conclusion – that the only way you can possibly deal with the horrors of social media is to hire the presenting lawyer and his or her firm to create a “social media policy” for you. Interestingly, this type of presentation echoes similar presentations from the days when blogging first became popular about “blogging policies,” and “website policies” before that, and “email policies” before that.

Now, those kinds of presentations have their place, but they don’t really interest me, and I suspect they don’t interest most lawyers, who definitely know how to spot issues and determine where the questions are, once they understand the lay of the land.

I heard a presentation of this type recently where the speaker actually said “I’m sure all of you in the audience know more about using social media than I do,” and still made the pitch for having his firm put together social media policies for you. OK. As I say, that type of presentation has its place, and it appears there’s plenty of audience for it.

I’ve always taken a different approach and audiences seem to respond to it. I think that lawyers want to get a solid understanding of what social media is, the basic tools, and see what the tools look like. I use a lot of screen shots. Then, I think they want to get an understanding of the benefits, not the horrors, so they can appreciate why millions of people are using these tools and what the potential uses for them might be. Add in some basic analytical approaches and most lawyers can run with the information, spot issues, and determine what matters for them. At least that’s what I think.

So, that’s the approach I’ll be taking and Mike will share his expertise and experience on ethical issues. We’ll also talk about policies in a practical context.

If this approach appeals to you and you are in St. Louis, I’d be happy to see you in the audience. As always, after any presentation I do, I’ll make myself as available as possible to answer questions during the rest of the day.

Dennis Kennedy

DennisKennedy.Blog was launched on February 15, 2003.

Dennis Kennedy is one of the few technology lawyers who is also an expert on the underlying technologies. Dennis an award-winning leader in the application of technology and the Internet to the practice of law.

This site gives you access to a wide variety of Dennis Kennedy's writings and information about how you can have Dennis speak to your organization or group.

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Dennis Kennedy is one of the most knowledgeable legal technologists you will find. - Michael Arkfeld.

Dennis Kennedy, a lawyer and legal technology expert in St. Louis, Mo., has been a significant influence in the ever-evolving relationship between lawyers and the Web. - Robert Ambrogi